Attention Turns to Israel-Arab Fifth Column

Nationalist groups call for the public to join in as they march on and destroy the home of the terrorist who massacred 8 Merkaz HaRav students.

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Hillel Fendel, 16/03/08 15:10

Several nationalist organizations are calling upon the public to join them as they march on the home of the terrorist who massacred eight Merkaz HaRav students and destroy it.

The police, already on high alert because of terrorist warnings, are planning to deploy large forces to stop the march.

The march is set to begin at 5 p.m. Sunday afternoon from the Banks Junction on Hevron Rd. in the south Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiyot. It is being sponsored by Beit El-based Komemiyut (Standing Tall), Women in Green, Lev Yehudi (Jewish Heart), and the bereaved families.

Red, black and white posters that can be seen all around Jerusalem blare, "The Arab enemy is inside Jerusalem! The mourning period is over. It's time to destroy the terrorist's house and wipe out the evil from our midst."

"Government Has Done Nothing"Moshe Musa Cohen, a Komemiyut organizer, told Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine about the initiative: "It's been over a week, and our government has not yet provided a real response to the slaughter in Merkaz HaRav. The same government that destroyed thousands of homes in Gush Katif can't destroy the home of just one terrorist? The still-standing home of the terrorist is a symbol of the government's weakness and failure to act. They want quiet while they carry out their mistaken diplomatic policies, and are generally unwilling to take action, and that's why the house is still standing."

"They keep talking about completing the partition fence," Cohen said, "yet this terrorist came from within the fence! He is a full-fledged resident of Israel." Most Arabs of eastern Jerusalem are residents with near-total citizenship rights, except for the right to vote in national elections. In 1980, when Israel annexed the entire city of Jerusalem, the Arab residents were given the right to full citizenship, just like the other Arabs of Israel, if they would learn Hebrew and pledge allegiance to the country; most of them refused.

The Message: Internal Enemy Must be Fought"When a country is afraid to deal with its enemies in its own capital," Cohen said, "that is a sign of bankruptcy... For us, it is hard to sit quietly; we want to express our protest and destroy the house."

Cohen does not expect to fulfill his second objective of destroying the house: "The same police whose men stayed outside Merkaz HaRav while the terrorist massacred the students, will be out in force to make sure that we don't get close to the house. But at least we will get our message across: We have an Arab enemy in Israel, and we must protect ourselves and fight against him."

"There is a fifth column inside the State of Israel," Cohen said, "and that is the Israeli-Arabs. We don't see a solution to this problem."

Matar: Boycott Arab Transport CompanyNadia Matar of Women in Green said, "The family of this terrorist is a wealthy one; it runs the Tiyulei HaPninah transportation company in Jerusalem, and we should boycott it."

Matar further said, "Today's protest is an important one. It begins a new campaign regarding the future of our country, and it is good that this issue is being raised... The government has not razed the house because it is afraid of the Arab MKs' reaction - just like it is afraid to attack Gaza and stop the Kassams. The government thus does not represent Jewish interests."

Israeli-Arabs Happy With AttackNot only have the Arab Knesset Members not condemned or spoken out against the murder of the eight yeshiva students, other Israeli-Arab elements have actually implied praise of it. The main headline in the Islamic Movement’s Al-Mithaak weekly the day after the attack read, “The First Response to the Massacre in Gaza!!!”

The body of the story said: “In a first response to [Israel's] acts of slaughter [in Gaza], Palestinians carried out an operation yesterday in which eight Israelis were killed and ten wounded.” The story refrained from using the term “terror attack,” “murder” or “terrorist.”

This week’s edition of the Al-Mithaak weekly reported on Wednesday's IDF liquidation of four senior terrorists in Bethlehem as follows: “After the Massacre in Gaza: The occupation turns to perpetrating massacres in the West Bank as undercover agents carry out massacre in heart of Bethlehem.”

Chabad Response: Israel is the Only PlaceRabbi Menachem Brod of the Young Chabad movement wrote in this week's Sichat HaShavua:

"If there is something more horrific than the terrible massacre of the yeshiva students hunched over their Torah texts, it is the quick return to the daily routine and the indications that the government is not planning to do a thing to respond appropriately to this crime. Nearly 52 years ago, we saw similar photos when terrorists infiltrated Kfar Chabad and shot and killed five students and a teacher as they were praying Maariv [the evening prayer]. This event was one of the factors that caused the Government of Israel to begin the Kadesh Operation [Suez Canal War of 1956]. But today, the government merely suffices with an expression of sorrow.

"In the past, this type of event was called a pogrom. Jewish communities were aroused to demand that the world not stand silently in the face of Jewish bloodshed. We used to be told that the establishment of the State of Israel was in order to prevent Jewish blood from being spilled wantonly - but now it turns out that the Jewish State is the only place in the world where yeshiva students can be massacred, and within a few days everything is back to normal, as if this is something we must learn to live with."